This invention relates to a vertical type of ice product making device and more particularly to a water spray unit for supplying ice-making water to a freezing plate of the ice product making device.
The typical construction of the water spray unit so far used in the art is shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, an upright freezing plate 1 has an evaporator 2 of the cooling system and an upper flange 3 to which a mounting plate 5 in the form of a letter L is securely mounted by set screws 6. The mounting plate 6 carries a main body 4 of the spray unit having a large number of spray apertures 4a.
A deflector 7 and an ice-making water soucer or reservoir 8 are mounted below the freezing plate 1. The icemaking water in the reservoir 8 is transferred by a circulating pump 9 into the main body 4 of the spray unit. The ice-making water in the main body 4 of the unit is sprayed via spray apertures 4a onto the freezing plate 1 and caused to descend so that, after lapse of a certain time interval, ice products 10 are formed on the surface of the freezing plate 1.
In the above described prior art device, the spray apertures of the spray unit 4 are so far apart from the freezing plate 1 that the ice-making water is scattered to a variable extent in dependence upon the spraying direction of the icemaking water with respect to the freezing plate 1 and the discharge pressure of the ice making water circulating pump. Moreover, the uniform product makeup is obstracted by the turbulence in the ice-making water flowing down the freezing plate 1. Thus the mounting position of the main body of the spray unit and the size of the spray apertures need to be controlled finely in order to assure uniform formation of the ice products. Such situation is highly inconvenient for mass production of the ice product making apparatus. In addition, in the prior art apparatus, high precision in the mounting position of the spray unit cannot be attained because the mounting plate 5 carrying the main body 4 of the spray unit is positioned to the upper flange 3 of the freezing plate 1 only by set screws 6.
Thus, there is a strong demand for a water spray unit for an ice product making machine which is devoid of the above mentioned various deficiencies.